Basics of Sahidic Coptic: A Complete Grammar with Exercises, Readings, and Lexicon
Zondervan Academic, 2025
Sahidic, the most extensively documented dialect of the Coptic language, boasts a wealth of surviving texts from the first millennium. These are especially relevant to scholars of both the Old and New Testaments, Egyptologists studying Egyptian linguistics, and scholars of early Christianity and gnostic movements in Egypt, offering valuable insights into textual history and interpretation.
Basics of Sahidic Coptic is an introductory textbook designed for a one-semester course. It equips students with the essential tools to begin learning Sahidic Coptic and to start translating texts early in their studies.
The grammar is organized into twenty-eight accessible chapters, most of which are accompanied by vocabulary lists and translation exercises—many drawn directly from biblical texts. The curriculum first focuses on the Sahidic noun system and related topics before moving on to the verbal system. The book also provides a selection of extended readings from both biblical and extrabiblical sources, along with a comprehensive lexicon and other reference tools to support continued study.
